Cheltenham Town's 'Blue Day' against Crewe Alexandra has helped raise over £5,000 for the British Lung Foundation (BLF).

The Robins wore a one-off blue strip for the League Two fixture against Crewe to raise awareness of the BLF, the only UK charity looking after the nation’s lungs.

The idea was the brainchild of the Robins Trust, who worked closely with the club and charity in creating an event to put on a show of togetherness with the club's fitness coach Ian Hutton and his fiancée Vicky Veness.

Fundraising drew to a close on Saturday night as the online auction for match worn shirts concluded.

A flurry of late bidding took the total raised through AMS Auctions alone to almost £2,800. Harry Pell’s shirt topped the lot, going for a staggering £503 with all but two of the blue jerseys going for more than £100.

The money raised from the auction has been added to the proceeds of the bucket collection and auctions at the ground immediately after the match on December 9. In the end, going blue for Crewe raised £5,145.33 for the BLF.

Murry Toms, the Robins Trust’s fan elected director, said: “Going blue for Crewe was such an important event for Cheltenham Town and I don't think it could have gone any better.

“Everyone wanted to show some solidarity with Ian and Vicky at a difficult time in their lives and using the club as a force for good was the perfect way to do that.

“Raising more than £5,000 is a fantastic achievement and every volunteer, supporter, player and member of staff played their part in us reaching that total.

Jamie Grimes

“More importantly we set out to drive awareness of the important issues around lung cancer and by getting national exposure for what we did was a resounding success on that front.

“We've seen some remarkable team performances on and off the pitch down the years but this one is right up there with the best.

Fundraising efforts gain local and national attention in the media, including an appearance on Sky Sports’ Soccer AM.

The Robins Trust have now invited the BLF back to the LCI Rail Stadium in the next few weeks so that the supporters can hand over the big cheque at half-time.

And the best news of the lot is that Vicky recently received some fantastic news, reporting she was in remission after treatment.

"Thank you to every single volunteer, supporter and player – and, of course, the superb work of the Robins Trust - for their contribution" a club statement said. "We couldn’t have done it without you."